In the last few days a Tumblr called simply Sad Guys On Trading Floors has had yet another jolt in internet popularity. This snarky view of those connected to the stock market is pervasive throughout the American citizenry. Their lack of sympathy of course is not unearned. This week the dollar took a hit by being downgraded from a triple A economy (AAA) to an AA+ economy by the firm Standard’s & Poor. Interestingly this same firm once gave AAA ratings to banks and toxic assets that caused our first crash back in 2008. Now as they have denigrated the dollar they have once again launched a sell off on the stock market sure to hit middle America and the middle class at large hard.

It would seem there is a few things the markets could(but most likely will not) do to save face and maybe save some people a lot of hardship. For one thing they could hold on to stocks rather than making moves on short term fears. The only way for the economy to begin to grow and for business development to flourish again is for money to still be circulating throughout it. With the government officially on cut-back mode that leaves the private sector and Wall Street to bravely take on investing in America once again. Of course I won’t hold my breath.

Business development requires smart internet moves and yet these days there is an increase in social networking tools making an effort to undermine the work of people making empty marketing based content on social networking sites. A great example is Klout. The folks at Klout are trying to measure individual’s merits within and out side of their own social network. The site takes it’s measurements not by sheer quantity of followers but by those followers engagement with content in “likes,” retweets, and active commentary.

This does not mean your business is out of the social networking game it simply means that you have to up the ante and offer your customers content that sparks their collective interest. Links to deals are great but how can you make offering something into a conversation? Answer that question and you will be cracking the code for better brighter business news in the future.

President Obama has urged for $50 billion in stimulus monies to be directed towards infrastructure renovation, but it is likely that he will meet some hurdles. Boehner, head of a large freshman class of traditional, conservative slah-spending Republicans, may be put at odds to move ahead with bipartisan cooperation. And in the meanwhile, Republicans vaunt Sarah Palin’s new book, which shows her looking as powerful as ever.

But Boehner’s temperance and modest beginnings (the second of twelve from a Cincinnati bar owner) seem to be a good fit with an anti-Ivy League House. As Congress works to alleviate government debt, and determine what to do about the Bush tax cuts, it is likely that Boehner will  become a vaunted leader of a diverse House of Tea Party fundamentalists and old school Republicans. But he would never say that.

These Americans are now part of an expanding lower class. With unemployment rates hovering around 9.5%, the real story is that almost a fifth of the country does not work full time. The extra ten percent comes from those who have odd jobs and who have stopped looking for work altogether. The happy huge middle class of the 90′s and 00′s is now a shrinking demographic.

While the stock market has spiraled upwards as of late, and growth abroad, especially in the Euro Zone, is significantly stronger than expected, Germany’s especially, the Economist argues that all of these signs- European optimism and American pessimism- are overblown. It will still take more investing in developing economies to move away from the recession. Until the world realizes and comes to terms with the fact that this was the event that shaped the course of the 21st century, there is a long way to go.

Some Fed workers worry that they can’t drive down asset rates from already super low levels – last week the 30 year mortgage rate dropped to 4.49%, its lowest since the 1950′s. With short term rates near zero, it’s harder to combat deflation than inflation, which can be fought with raised rates.

While infrastructure repair is needed, both for our country’s aging bridges and roads and the millions of out of work construction workers, it means more spending, which conservatives are wary of. Many are just concerned about reducing long term debt, and leaving the current problem to recover slowly. But Mr. Bernanke knows best.

In the 1990′s as a professor at Princeton, he advised Japan to set an inflation rate of 3 to 4%, which would mean that the cost of borrowing would fall. This is because interest rates were at zero, and the real cost of borrowing is rates minus inflation, which would theoretically spur demand. But since deflation hasn’t yet started, it’s not quite time for this.

For now, we’re still playing the waiting game.

The Financial Bill passed 60-39 and has been lauded by many as a responsible piece of legislation, and touted by others as imcomplete. Deregulation and laissez-faire economics have seen and done enough damage for the government to enact its first step towards economic socialism. I’m sure that phrasing made many of you shudder, but what else would you call it?

Republicans voted against the bill, obviously, but even Democrats are unsure as to whether the Bill will prevent future damages. The ability to invest in hedge funds, hold derivatives, and charge for debit interactions will change up front. The Financial Stability Oversight Council is a new department in charge of monitoring flashpoints in the economy, breaking up firms that pose a risk to the economy, and other regulatory procedures.

Republicans argue that this will prevent small and medium sized businesses from obtaining credit, and will force jobs overseas. To other more capitalistic countries? HA! The lack of attention to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is one of the larger issues that remains, as is the definition of “too big to fail,” but again, the bill is still up for review and is on the way to becoming complete, so Dems say.

Estonia joined the E.U. yesterday, becoming the 17th member. The small Baltic state will switch from the kroon to the Euro on Jan. 1 2011.. There remains mild concern over the sinking currency, as voiced by Dmitri Medvedev. Austerity measures are being enacted all around the Euro Zone – France will up their retirement age to – gasp! – 62! and Germany, watching Greece, Spain and Portugal, hesitates to to inject money into their market to increase spending.

At home, interest rates are still low, easing fears that the economy could double dip. BP agreed to a $20 billion fund to help Gulf Coast residents, and Obama was booed for his Oval Office address. He warned that stimulus procedures must continue in order to maintain recovery. With the G-20 conference in Toronto next week, Obama also wants Chinese consumers to continue buying, by allowing the remninbi to appreciate. Their export driven economy will likely keep the remnibi where it is, or inch it ever so higher, due to its recent strength against the decreasing Euro.

All in all, people aren’t really sure where we’re going. Stimulus measures must be continued, but the recession is becoming every day more a thing of the past. As Randy Frederick, director of trading for Charles Schwab put it, “None of the problems have been resolved. They have been sort of moved off the headline page.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has given up all of the gains it has made this year over the course of the past couple of weeks. Why? Well, in large part due to fears of a Greek default. But that’s not all. When Germany announced last week that it was banning hedging on Euro-zone government debt, markets tumbled further.  A consequent rise in interest rates between Europe’s banks doesn’t bode well for the rest of the world.

China is worried about the astronomical prices of its real estate, and the renmnibi is still highly inflated against the Euro, which China has yet to incrementally attack. If the European situation worsens, more may have to be done sooner.

Deflation, already extant in Ireland and Spain, is causing American fears too. The United States’ G.D.P. remains low, and with cash failing to circulate, the consumer price index (CPI, as a measure of inflation) is continually sliding from its year on year percentage.

While global markets are hoping that deficits are cut, especially in Europe, that fear may lead to more unknown occurrences, which is why the VIX volatility index has reached its highest rate in over a year.

What does it all mean? For right now, things aren’t getting any better. Let’s just hope they don’t get any worse.

As the recession ends, consumer confidence is widespread. For some, however, there was never a recession. In China and India, optimism remains at an all time high. The effects of globalization that were expected early last decade, that of outsourcing these growing countries to even cheaper labor, has produced the opposite effect. Companies like Brazil’s Embraer, a jetliner corporation, buys its component parts from Western countries, and assembles its products at home.

China and India lead the pack, as college graduates, graduate degrees, and satisfaction with life has risen dramatically over the past ten years. This is in large part thanks to a new sort of innovation, one that leaves many Western countries scratching their heads about how to remain competitive. New design methods that allow for even more widespread accessibility, especially among an emergent consumer class. Simpler and cheaper is the new “new and improved” and these once third world countries are showing everyone how to do it, from cars to computers. Population booms expect more than 5 billion Asians by 2050, and a doubling of Africa’s denizens, from 1 billion in 2010 to 2, over the next 40 years.   Competing on a global scale is what these emerging market companies are after, and not only are they achieving it, but they in fact, are leading the way.

On April 7th, British Airlines and Iberia inked a merger deal to become the world’s sixth largest airline in revenue. A day later, United Airlines and US Airways resumed talks that failed in 2000 and 2008. If these two were to merge, they would become the world’s 4th largest airline behind Lufthansa, Air France, and Delta.

These mergers come during a decade of losses for the battered airline industry, which suffered from a spike in oil prices in 2008, and the weakness of the travel industry in 2009. With global economies rebounding, there are hopes that eliminating competition will send air fares higher. When Delta and Northwest merged in 2008, Delta effectively became the nation’s largest airline. This success has partly prompted these talks.

In the past, these deals have been difficult to pull off due to labor contracts. US Airways, while one of the weaker American airlines, has a key hub in Phoenix, which competes directly with Southwest. Southwest was the only large scale airline to turn a profit last year. United, which has a strong presence on the East Coast with hubs in L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, would benefit from the Southwestern exposure.

Although a deal is not expected to go through for weeks, it at all, this merger signals that the world of airline travel is changing.